movie review: Broken Flowers

Published in The Post-Star (Go! section)
9/22/05

Broken Flowers 2005. Directed by Jim Jarmusch. Starring Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy and Jessica Lange. 106 minutes. Rated R for language, some graphic nudity and brief drug use.

Bill Murray has gotten so good at portraying lonely, emotionally lost men that he barely even needs lines anymore. Just a sarcastic twitch of his lips or a flicker of his mournful eyes can somehow carry a scene through long moments of silence. When he does speak, he's the master of understatement.

In "Broken Flowers," Murray plays Don Johnston -- or, as he's dubbed by the girlfriend who dumps him at the beginning of the film, "an over-the-hill Don Juan." His character is given little introduction; at first he seems to exist only as a tired accessory to his expensively decorated living room, wearing an old track suit and an expression of resigned gloom.

Then a pink envelope pushes its way through his mailslot, with a message from a woman who says she became pregnant with his son 20 years ago. One big problem: It's not signed. There are so many women in his past that this presents a real puzzle.

Don's wonderfully boisterous neighbor, Winston (Jeffrey Wright), is one of the brightest spots in the movie. He's a would-be sleuth who latches onto the mysterious note and won't let go until he's pushed Don off on a road trip to visit four of his old girlfriends and "look for clues, like pink paper and red ink." The result is a series of highly awkward encounters that illustrate just how much people can change in two decades.

"Broken Flowers" isn't supposed to be a feel-good film, although it has moments of unexpected sweetness and hilarity. It refuses to wrap up neatly. Its underlying message is existential, summed up in Don's advice to a young man who he thinks might be his son: The past is gone; the future's not here yet. All you've got is the present.

Want more?
If you love Murray in "Broken Flowers," check out his similar roles in "Lost in Translation" (2003) and "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004). If you're more of an action flick type -- well, you're probably going to want to break more than flowers after sitting through this deliberately slow-paced film.
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